1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to photographic film which can be developed in automatic processors, and particularly to black-and-white radiographic film which will reduce developer chemistry fluctuations in automatic processors.
2. Background of the Invention
Silver halide grains and emulsions are made by a complex sequence of steps in which the grains are grown, chemically modified, sensitized and variously treated to create grains and emulsions of particular shapes, sizes and properties. During these steps, many different chemicals are combined and reacted. One particular subclass of materials, soluble halide salts are used at many different points in the process of producing a photographic element.
Water soluble or aqueous soluble salts are used during the actual precipitation of the silver halide grains (e.g., EPO 174018), during growth and ripening steps in the preparation of the emulsion (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,652), or are added to the emulsion immediately prior to coating (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,332,888 and 4,536,473). Water soluble halide salts, particularly potassium bromide, are added as anti-fogging agents to photographic developer solutions. Most of these water soluble halide salts react to form insoluble salts or are washed out of the emulsion prior to being coated onto a substrate to form a photographic element. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,332,888 and 4,536,473 do show the addition of water soluble halide (including bromide) salts into photographic emulsions before coating of the emulsions onto a carrier substrate. The concentration of these salts are much less than 0.1 g/m.sup.2.